Holes

“The only constant in life is change.” — Heraclitus

Holes is a wonderful book by Louis Sachar about a boy who gets sent to a camp, a horrible camp. Stanley Yelnats got caught when people saw him steal shoes. These were Clyde “Sweet Feet” Livingston’s shoes (a famous baseball player). No one would listen to his version, that he never stole the shoes, and he was immediately put to justice.

Stanley was sent to a camp and at first he was excited. Because his family didn’t have much money he had never gone to camp before and thought it would be fun. However it was not fun. Mr Sir and Warden (Miss Walker) made everyone dig a hole 5 by 5 feet. Stanley and the other boys at the camp had no clue why they had to do such tasks. But it was only until they paid their debt.

Hector “Zero” Zeroni was doomed to stay there forever though. Thats because as an orphan he didn’t have anyone to get him. Zero is one of the fastest diggers their and finishes quick. Soon Zero and Stanley become “friends” and form an alliance and made a deal.

Zero would help dig Stanleys hole and Stanley would teach Zero how to read and write. Later however when Stanley was digging he found a gold pipe and gave it to Warden. Warden then made everyone dig harder in the spot Stanley pointed out (which wasn’t the actual spot because Stanley was clever).

Zero ran away after hitting a counselor with his shovel and a few days after Stanley followed in pursuit. Together they survived in the wilderness by eating turnips they dug up. After a while Stanley decided he would go back. And so they crept there at night and tried digging the hole.

But Warden caught them. Stanley and Zero before they got caught, had dug up a suitcase. Yellow-spotted lizards (poisonous) were all around the hole and nobody could move anything in fear they would be bitten. Not even Mr Sir or Warden could do anything but hope they’d move on.

The lizards eventually became used to Zero and Stanley. His lawyer came to tell him the good news and came to see this. When they came out of the hole Warden kept asking for the suitcase claiming it was hers.

Zero (who had it) shook his head and even though he could barely read he said “But this belongs to Stanley Yelnats”. And so Stanley ended up coming home to find out he was innocent and he had a bunch of riches from the chest which belonged to his great-grandfather.